My Baby Goes By Many Names

If you have ever read my blog, it’s no secret that our little Quinny (who is just shy of 9 months) is pretty adored around here.

It’s not hard to understand why, she is pretty adorable. Nathan said recently, that just looking at her makes him feel better about everything. He’s pretty smart, that husband of mine. This is Quinn and I after her first family bike ride. (I feel like the explanation is fairly important given my level of sweat.)

Because she is so loved and adored, she gets a new nickname just about everyday. It started with Quinny, which Gavin quickly turned into Quinny Coo Peanut Poo. That turned into a number of different names, like Coo Bear and Cooey Coo to Moo Bear and Miss Moo (this sounds like a bad Dr. Suess poem). Somewhere out in blogland a mother is smiling reading this and someone else without kids or the desire to have them is puking. I’m okay with both reactions.

Anyway, I have been wanting to make some art for Quinn’s room for awhile now, and it occurred to me that not all of these names will stick, and very likely at some point she will hate all of them, and equally likely, there could come a day when she has a little one of her own and loves seeing put down in art all the names we loved her with.

So! I started out with my Silhouette software (if you don’t have a Silhouette, but you are fascinated with them and want to play around with their software, you can download it for free, here!!). I planned on framing it in an 8×10 frame, but you know, letter size is 8 1/2 x 11. Start out with the paper size at 8 x 10.

Then type in all your nicknames. Wait . . . you don’t have 700 nicknames for your kiddo? {Scoff} Well, maybe you want to do all the stats of their birth ala this.

Once you have how you want it, change the page size to 8 1/2 by 11, select all, and center it to the page.

Hey, Lisa! You figured out how to do a screen shot! Congratulations!! Welcome to the modern era!

Why, thank you.

I filled in all my names with the color paper I wanted them to be, half so that I could get a sense of design, and half so that I could copy all those of the same color to a new document, off set them, and then cut out the exact right size paper to go behind them.

I cut out all the offsets first, because once I did the main white card stock, I was left with this on my mat,

and I knew it was going to be important to keep track of all those o-holes!

Here is what I pulled off my mat.

You might notice that I had a stuck Y and had to pull out my exacto knife to get it out.

I have only had my Silhouette since Christmas, and I’m still learning my settings. I used a pretty heavy card stock for this, and it would have been better if I would have gone on a lower setting (like 4) and had it double cut. I’ve found that if you set it too high, it will tug at your paper, skip, and you will end up with stuck letters. It’s also worth noting that I went at the slowest speed, which was good for all those small letters with dainty little loops. If those tips don’t help, flip it over and cut from the back. Carefully.

Now add your offset papers to the back. I used double sided tape. It was nice because it held it just fine, but I could move it easily if the paper was too big and covered another name than the one it was meant for. Start from the outside edge and work your way in.

I kept my offset papers labeled with where they went, but I’m pretty sure that is only because I need to compensate for my IQ dropping significantly with each pregnancy (it’s like all that blood flow to my uterus and away from my brain did permanent damage . . . ).

Then flip it over and add the middles of the letters. I added mine with gluestick. When you are picking out fonts, take a look at the size of the middle of the letters, and consider how agile your fingers are. Mine aren’t very agile. I had to recut a couple of b-holes after losing them.

I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out!

So is Quinny. Quinnah. Coo Bear. Poor child. She has no idea what her name is. We call her everything but Quinn.

If you are interested in which fonts are which . . . .

Quinny – Bambi Bold

Coo Bear – Black Boys On Mopeds

Miss Moo – Euphorigenic

Moo Bear – June Bug

Quinnah! – Care Bear Family

Pookie Poo – Nikelodeon

Quinny Coo Peanut Poo – Big Top

Cooey Coo – Ding Dong Daddyo

Sassy Pants – Fancy Pants

Little Lady – American Typewriter

Sweet Pea – Hardly Worthit

Quinn A Loo – Pleasingly Plump

Qubanita – Minya Nouvelle

Would you like some custom Nick Name Art for your kiddo? Visit my etsy shop!

Trackbacks

[…] art. And I always make it using my Silhouette software! First I did it as a cut out with the Nickname Subway Art and then I did it again for Valentine’s Day. And now I’m doing it for Halloween, only […]